Dull Wickedness Inside 1 Crossroads
by storygirl420
Summary: Sam and Dean are on the hunt only to find themselves in over their heads and saved by…what else, a girl! They find a kindred spirit in Eris Sydelle Cross, Dean finding himself especially drawn to her. Will she be able to let go of her haunted past and let


Title: Dull Wickedness Inside Series: Story One-Crossroads

Author: Jeanine Stice

Summery: Sam and Dean are on the hunt only to find themselves in over their heads and saved by…what else, a girl! They find a kindred spirit in Eris Sydelle Cross, Dean finding himself especially drawn to her. Will she be able to let go of her haunted past and let Dean in as she joins the brothers on their hunt?

Disclaimer: I don't own the Winchester boy's I just fed them one day and they followed me home! I don't own Supernatural or any characters therein or anything _else _you recognize from the world in the story herein…other then that, it's all mine. Not getting a dime for any of this (yeah right, as if). Don't bother suing me you'd loose more then I'd ever have. I just abuse Sam and Dean for my own amusement and share for the pleasures of others.

Rated MA: Mature Audiences only for explicit language extreme violence and adult content.

Authors Notes: This is just a story idea that burrowed in my brain and refused to leave until it was properly exorcised. If you don't like it, too bad your delete and back buttons are there for a reason. Have any constructive comments…and I mean constructive people. I don't need anyone to tell me my spelling is horrific and my grammar is atrocious when I am already well aware. Have a problem with my lack of education in the English language? Talk to the California school system…and not me.

Story Notes: Story told from OFC's (Original Female Characters) POV (point of view) throughout this story. Story set between the Bugs Episode and Home picking up as an Alternative Universe after that. Wrote this story because I wanted to put Dean into a position where he understood that he might've been a little bull headed about his Dads treatment of Sam growing up because it was their father. So I wanted him to get close to a girl who was raised like them by her father but under slightly different less loving circumstances. In future story's her 'dead' father will pop up and cause a lot of drama between Dean and Eris. Eventually he and Sam learn the truth about him and her childhood seeing it first hand. The end result being that Dean starts to see things from Sam's point of view and feels a little guilty for being hard on him the way he was. Not that I think Sam's behavior was all together excusable but I thought Dean could have been a little more understanding about it.

Supernatural Story Series AU

Dull Wickedness Inside

Story One Crossroads

Chapter One, A Town East of Eternity

Eris Sydelle Cross pulled her '54 midnight blue Mustang into the spot in front of her hotel room eyeing the new car parked in the spot next to hers. It was an Impala in nice shape a favorite classic of hers next to 'Stang's. Grabbing her takeout she opened her hotel room door dropping her food on the table by the window throwing her keys and purse down before moving back for her beer in the backseat. She stopped at her door when she saw a guy now standing in front of her car bending over to take it in his back to her.

He had short sandy hair and a brown leather jacket on, in some jeans that hugged his ass nicely as he bent over.

"That Impala _your_ baby?" She asked making him start and spin around to look at her.

"Yeah." He answered taking her in, in surprise. She grinned at him walking over to grab the two six packs in her backseat.

"It's a nice car, say hello to mine." She told him leaning against the side of her car and putting one of the six-packs down. "Eris Sydelle Cross. You my next door neighbor?" She asked offering him her hand and a smile.

"Yeah." He replied with a grin. "Me and my brother Sammy."

"Well, here." She said after he released her hand grabbing two beers from one of the packs and handing them to him with a playful smile. "Welcome to the neighborhood. Always appreciate neighbors with good taste." She said winking.

"Thanks. Maybe we'll see you around. I'm Dean." He told her and she smiled moving towards her hotel room.

"Nice to meet you Dean, have a nice night." She told him before disappearing behind the door of her hotel room. "Damn Dean you're a hottie with a hot car, not often I want a guy _and_ his car…instead of for it." She muttered quietly to herself before digging into her food and logging onto the Internet. Kicking back with a carton of Fried Rice with some Prawns and Spring Rolls she began to read up on the mysterious deaths happening in the previously quiet little town she was currently visiting.

A total of six people in the last six months all found dead in a secluded section of wilderness. They all were found with rocks runes carved in them set up in around them in a circle and they where found lying on some type of stone alter. As suspicious as it looked every death had been ruled non violent, no signs of drugs or injury's. As far as the medical examiner could tell they had all died of heart attacks.

An hour later after eating and putting her food away in the minnie fridge she finally finished everything she could find on the Net, printing what she thought she might need for reference. She knew she still had at least a week before the next killing by this she believed, a warlock. The hardest part she knew would be finding the next location set up in the woods for the next killing. Cracking her neck and back from so long at the computer she decided it was time for a little R and R slipping into her coat and grabbing her things she walked down the street to the local bar.

Sliding in she wandered up to the bar ordering a double shoot of vodka and a beer. She heard a snicker followed by several groans over by the pool table and spotted Dean hustling up some locals. She moaned as the woman onstage wearing too much make-up belted out a very off tune note and she noticed they were having some kind of singing contest. She groaned at the sight of the sign above the stage that stated this fact rolling her eyes heavenward cursing her luck and turning her back on it wishing she could so easily deafen her ears to it.

"They've been going at it that bad since I came in." Said the young man next to her with shaggy brown hair and eyes.

"Yeah? Unfortunately you can't hear the cat's strangling from outside to warn you before you come in." She commented tossing back her shot and motioning to the bartender for another.

"Wouldn't have done me any good my brother was determined to hustle some pool tonight." He said and she smiled over at him.

"I take it your Sam, I'm your neighbor Eris." She told him with a smirk offering her hand.

"Ah, thanks for the beer." Sam told her with a warm smile.

"My pleasure. I don't do gift baskets." She offered with a shrug and a smirk. Eris clapped with the others when the woman who had been singing finally finished but only because she was getting offstage. She started nodding her head in time to the opening musical notes to an AC/DC song only to wince when the guy behind the microphone started to sing. "Lord god, kill me now, my poor ears." She mumbled.

"It's not the worst I've heard tonight." Sam informed her shaking his head.

"Hey! Ah! Ha! Ha!" Dean said sliding up beside Sam waving a fat wad of bills at him.

"Looks like your brother is quiet the hustler." She commented looking over at him with a raised brow as she leaned forward on the bar.

"Hey Eris, buy you a drink in return for the beer?" Dean asked her with a cocky smile.

"I'll take another double shot of vodka, thanks." She said with a smirk. She sighed in relief when the AC/DC song ended even though she knew she would only have to endure something else equally bad in a moment. "It's so horrible to hear good music thrashed like that." She muttered sipping her beer.

"AC/DC fan? A Girl after my own heart." Dean said with a cocky grin leaning forward past his brother to look at her and wink.

"I have very eclectic taste in music." She told him turning quickly to look at the band in disbelief when she heard the opening cords of music. "Oh no…they're going to slaughter Led Zeppelin and it's my favorite song of theirs 'Stair Way To Heaven'!" She complained turning back towards the bar sharply when the man started to sing.

"This is pure torture." Dean said in gritted teeth.

"Auditory forms of torture are not unheard of." She told Dean in a clinical voice nodding and sipping her beer.

"If this keeps up much longer I'm going back to the hotel. A guy can only take so much bad music." Sam complained downing some of his beer.

"Potty break, be back boys. Hopefully the walls are thick." She said downing her shot and the rest of her beer pushing it forward before getting up.

She found her way to the bathroom only to find a woman with a clipboard who was signing up people for the contest. After talking with her shortly she signed up and went to the bathroom to relieve her self and wash her face before going outside to get up onstage. She told the band to play 'Stair Way To Heaven' again, and then the AC/DC song she'd heard earlier before it. A singer after all could only put up with so much bad singing and she just _had_ to do those songs some justice.

She smiled and winked at Sam and Dean when they looked up at her in surprise, when she sang the first line there was a round of applause at the sound of her voice. She got a lot of cheers and applause for both her songs only to have the owner give her the prize money and request a song that was a bit more suited to her voice Janis Joplin's Mercedes Benz. She smirked at Dean and Sam when she approached them sitting with their backs to the bar watching her.

"Just how much did you make there?" Dean asked her with a raised brow.

"Five hundred dollars." She told him with a smirk motioning for another from the bartender indicating she wanted a double shot of vodka again.

"In less then a half an hour, you've got talent." Dean said with a cocky smirk looking over at her.

"It was fate, Lady was by the bathrooms with the clipboard and no one else was on the list. I just had to do those songs some justice I didn't even consider the prize." She said with a shrug downing her shot. "I think it's time to hit the sack gentlemen. It's been a pleasure." She told them sliding into her jacket and paying her tab making sure to tip the bartender well.

"Wait up and we'll walk with you." Dean said paying their tab as well to follow her outside with Sam.

"So what brings you to this town?" Dean asked as he walked beside her Sam next to him.

"Just passing threw, needed a break from the road." She told him with a shrug.

"Where you heading?" Sam asked her.

"Nowhere in particular, just driving. You two?" She asked redirecting the question.

"The same." Dean said and she looked over at him smiling.

"Okay." She said with a nod. If he wanted to play it that way she could too. "I'm kind of between homes at the moment and haven't felt like putting roots down anywhere yet." She explained with a shrug.

"We're looking for our Dad. He moved us around a lot and disappeared during one of his hunting trips." Dean told her and she looked at him sadly she could detect more then a note of truth in his statement but knew something integral was being withheld.

"Sounds like you were close. I hope you find him." She said looking away sadly.

"What about you, any family?" Sam asked her as they stopped at the cars Dean leaning on the Impala as she leaned back on her 'Stang.

"My family is dead. Mom died giving birth to me, my older brother Daniel died six years ago. You could say my father was the last to go." She replied looking down at her feet.

"Sorry, that sounds lonely." Dean said to her sounding genuinely regretful.

"I'll always miss Daniel, we were very close." She said with a nod.

"No other family?" Sam asked sounding sad.

"Nope, lot's of friends but no family. What about you guy's?" She asked them.

"No other family, Mom died when we're young." Sam told her and she shook her head smirking ruefully over at them.

"We're quiet the little trio aren't we?" She said in a sardonic voice.

"The three amigos." Dean said looking over at her with a grin. She laughed out loud doubling over before getting control of herself and straightening shaking her head and smirking at him.

"I'm done for the evening, thanks boys. It was a nice night." She said walking to her door and unlocking it, waving at their reply's before closing the door behind her. Sighing she set up for the night before stripping and taking a nice long shower to get clean.

After drying off and brushing out her wet hair she put on her pajamas and had some hot chocolate with some coffee cake in the little microwave provided by the hotel. She reviewed the stuff she'd gotten off the net while she ate her snack finally turning in when dawn was peeking threw the windows all her usual weapons stashed around her while she slept.

She slept restlessly until noon getting up and getting breakfast from a nearby I.H.O.P. getting her self a nice big meal with coffee. After eating she made her way out to the woods where she thought the next killing might take place according to a pattern she thought she'd noticed taking her supplies with her. She covered the car before hiking to the spot snickering to her self when she found she was right the concealment spell not nearly enough to hide it from her. He'd already set up the rocks and alter for it all he needed was the right moon and a victim but she planned on stopping him this time.

She could feel his masculine energy as it permeated this place in readiness for the ritual and kill making her feel slightly ill. She found a good spot to stash her back up's taking great care to cover her tracks so he wouldn't know she was there. There was always the risk that this warlock could be strong enough to see around her tricks but she knew she was good very, very good and she had a fair amount of faith in herself and her training. After double checking everything she made her way back to her car continuing to cover her tracks until she drove away down the near by road.

She opted for the same I.H.O.P. for her dinner deciding she was too beat for the bar after all the energy she'd exerted in the woods. She'd been sitting about five minutes looking at the menu when Sam and Dean came in and she smirked waving them over to her booth. They all shared a laugh as they seated themselves getting menus from the server.

"So, no bar hopping tonight?" Dean asked her with a smirk.

"Nah, calling it an early night." She explained with a shrug sipping her coffee.

"Ears needed a rest huh?" Sam joked.

"Really though, that was horrible." She said rolling her eyes skyward.

"At least up until the end their." Dean said looking at her meaningfully.

"Thanks." She said with a smile. "I try. Used to dream about being a singer as a kid." She said more to herself then them.

"You sure got the voice for it." Sam told her.

"Why didn't you?" Dean asked her.

"My dad. Said singers couldn't make a living and said I couldn't sing." She said with a shrug.

"Sounds like he was afraid of losing you." Dean said softly.

"Yeah." She said looking over at him. "It sound's like that doesn't it?"

The server arrived and took their orders bringing them all hot chocolates to drink. They talked about music and car's for a while until food arrived and they ate before paying. They said goodnight to each other before going to their perspective rooms for the night.

Three hours later Eris sat up in bed screaming as she ripped herself from sleep sweat dripping from her skin her heart ready to pound out of her chest. She had no memory of what nightmare precisely had woken her and counted her self lucky for that. She slid on her gray long john's top when she realized there was a chill in the air jumping half a foot when she heard a knock at the door.

Sighing at herself disgustedly she got up grabbing her gun before approaching the door to look out the peephole and see Dean looking rumpled and slightly worried. Stashing her gun out of sight she sighed and opened the door giving him a sheepish once over.

"Woke you did I?" She asked contritely.

"You alright?" He asked in way of answer.

"Never met a girl who had nightmares before?" She asked him.

"That sounded pretty bad." He commented.

"I'm sure it did. Luckily I wasn't awake to hear it myself." She answered with a shrug.

"What were you dreaming about?" Dean asked her curiously.

"Couldn't tell you, don't always remember. Look it's still early, and I don't know about you but I definitely don't plan on being awake any longer at this hour then I can help." She said offering him a small grin.

"Yeah, sweet dreams." He said smiling at her.

"You too Dean, sorry to wake you." She said as she closed her door.

Sighing as she crawled back into bed she laid there with her eyes closed trying to ignore the rapidly running thoughts in her head. To many nightmares of her past could have been rearing their ugly head and going threw the most likely list of suspects was just the best way to ensure that she had _another _nightmare. So she turned her mind towards Sam and his hottie brother Dean and pondering on just what their secret was. She always did enjoy the challenge of some new discovery and Dean seemed like her best next discovery.

The next day they completely missed each other and by the time she pulled into the motel it was a few hours till dawn and the Impala was cool and their lights off. She ate cold leftovers and had some water before getting ready for bed. She slept until late afternoon stretching and making her way to I.H.O.P. for a late breakfast. She went back to her hotel then to gather her supplies for the nights hunt.

She rechecked everything before changing for the night into a pair of loose jeans boots and a shirt with her leather jacket. Her duffle over her shoulder it was well past dark and the Impala was gone from the parking lot. She wished them a good night as she pulled out onto the road and followed the rout to what she'd come to think of as the killing zone. She hid her car in the same spot before slowly and quietly approaching the spot in the woods.

She used every skill her Navy S.E.A.L. father had taught her to ensure she wouldn't be heard knowing if the warlock were there he'd sense her anyways. She encountered nothing unusual until she approached the end of the clearing and spotted the circle. He'd already gotten his victims and it appeared he had two men, she paused as she recognized them cursing under her breath.

"I know you're out there." The warlock cried nasty dagger in his hand held over Sam while he looked towards the woods.

Dropping her things so she looked as harmless as she could she stashed them before approaching him in the circle in the clearing.

"Eris, get the hell outta here." Dean said threw gritted teeth from where he was hogtied on the ground by the alter his brother was trussed up on.

"You are far too late to help your friends little girl." The warlock sneered.

"Really Eris, you need to get out of here. Now!" Sam said from the alter he was bound to.

"They look like they aren't enjoying themselves why don't you let me escort them home." She said sweetly approaching them she noticed the shimmering circle around them and realized he'd closed it already. The warlock saw her notice it too and sneered at her distaste in his eyes.

"Witch," He hissed out and she shrugged at him with a smirk.

"I've been called worse." She told him shrugging.

"You're too late to stop me. I've closed the circle." He hissed.

"And you, Mister Julian Sands wanna be. You haven't been at this very long have you?" She asked him moving around the circle so that if it dropped he'd be a few feet from her. "Anything can be broken, with the right tools." She said with a smile. "What can I say I have a thing against warlocks, helping my friends here just happens to be an added bonus. You heard about the 'Burning Time's' right? When women and men were burned at the stake because they were thought to be witches or just flat out in league with evil? You know there _is_ a reason they used fire…don't you?" She asked him.

She pulled her dagger and tore it threw the air using it to cleanly sever his circle making it collapse. He howled making to jump her but she already had the flare gun leaved on him and pulled the trigger. He howled in pain half of his midsection catching fire when it struck him and she knocked him away from her and the circle with a neatly placed round house that sent him sprawling.

"The full moon was also considered the best time to kill witches, you know? It's very historically accurate. Does it burn? It's the phosphorus in the flare Witches and Warlock's have quiet the weakness to it." She commented dropping the dagger for Dean before moving in for the warlock trying to smother himself and put out the phosphorous-fueled fire. She grabbed her bag, up ending her container on him, which suddenly engulfed him in blue flame while he howled. It burned him to nothing but smoke carrying off into the winds as she watched before salting the ground where his body had fallen.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked as he and Sam approached from behind her.

"Salting the earth so he can't come back from up under it." She explained somehow knowing they'd believe her.

"They can do that?" Sam asked in surprise.

"Yep. Not the only way a warlock has, to return from death. Haunting's are not uncommon." She explained.

"Then why didn't you salt his body before burning it up?" Dean asked her.

"Because it wouldn't work with a warlock. They have several items of power that they can use to help them come back." She explained.

"Can't we destroy them too?" Sam asked her.

"No way to track them all down, a half decent warlock has hundreds strewn out all around the world. Not that I think he was half decent. No offence, if you've never dealt with a warlock they can be pretty tricky." She offered as she moved around packing up the stuff she'd stashed for back up's.

"You've been here before?" Dean asked in realization as they followed her around while she was gathering her stuff.

"Found it two day's ago, just waited for him to show." She explained. "You guy's need a ride?" She asked with a raised brow before leading the way.

"Nice dagger." Dean said offering it back to her as he closed the gap between them.

"It was my mothers." She said with a nod.

"Really?" Dean asked in surprise. "Cool."

"The car's this way." She said leading the way for them.

"So how is it you know all about this stuff?" Dean asked her.

"Runs in the family. It has for hundred's of years. My mothers family has had psychic ability's going back four hundred years. My fathers family has known the truth about what's in the dark for about a hundred and fifty. I was raised into this trained up for it, as I was destined to inherit gift's from my mothers line of the family. In the history of the Millers no daughter was ever able to leave this life without tragedy befalling her." She explained tossing her things into the trunk of her car before they all got inside.

Dean directed her towards where the Impala was left so they could pick it up, Sam stepping out to drive it while Dean stayed in the passenger seat next to her for the drive to the hotel.

"Thanks for back there, you showed in the nick of time." He told her.

"It was no coincidence Dean. I'd studied his patterns for the killings and already knew what night he would strike next on and what time, the hard part was finding the location and waiting for his ass to come out of hiding." She explained.

"Sounds like you had it all worked out." Dean said shaking his head. "Guess this trip was a wreck."

"Not totally." She said smirking as she winked over at him. "You met me."

"The, saving grace. Literally." Dean said with a chuckle.

"Just little ol' harmless me." She said giving him an innocent look that made him chuckle.

"Yeah right tell that to the Warlock." He said a slight sound of awe in his voice.

"Somehow I don't think I'll be needing to." She said with a smirk.

"Yeah tell me about it." Dean remarked as they pulled into the parking lot Sam right behind them.

"So I take it y'all got questions to ask me?" She said as they got out of the cars.

"You could say that." Sam remarked coming around the Impala as they all stood in front of their rooms.

"Well guess we could go in my room for it, at least I've got enough beer." She said with a grin opening the door to let them in.

It was your normal hotel room with a small kitchen and dinning area with a small fridge sink and stove with a table big enough to seat four. The bedroom had two twin beds and two nightstands and a small desk that had her laptop and mp3 player on it. The place hardly looked lived in but she was always very neat a by-product of being raised by her father. Her cloths were either put away or dirty and in her duffle, most of her arms were either stashed on her in the room or in her car.

The only things out of the ordinary were the notes and articles on the wall around the desk. Everything she'd worked on was up there and the two brothers were drawn to it. Each step of hers was outlined from the first day she'd arrived her own notes on the clues in articles she'd followed and notes on her visit's to the past locations of killings posted on the wall next to them. Included were the charts and patterns she'd picked up and used to locate his next killing zone.

"This is incredible." Sam said looking at her in awe.

"It's what I was raised for. My father was a navy S.E.A.L. he imparted a good part of that training onto his kids. Not to mention the high IQ that got me threw collage early and in two years astounded most of my professors." She explained with a shrug grabbing beer from the fridge and offering some to them. She handed Dean his and sat down on her bed while they continued to look over her notes.

"Nothing goes better with beer then pizza, you guy's want?" She asked grabbing her cell phone and a menu she'd picked up from the local pizza place that delivered. After agreeing on what they all wanted she called it in taking off her jacket and pulling out her flare guns and dagger to put them on her nightstand. She grabbed her cleaning kit from the closet cleaning the dagger while Dean opened up the flare gun with a round left in it to examine the round.

"You said this had phosphorus in it?" He asked her curiously.

"Yep, that and brimstone are two major weaknesses of Witches and Warlock's." She explained sharpening the knife before putting it away in its wooden case. She reloaded the rounds giving one to Dean so he could take a look inside if he wanted. "They're easy to make I can give you the recipe." She told him.

"Did you say something about Brimstone?" Sam asked watching as Dean opened up the flare.

"Yeah, works great, but a pain in the ass to collect. It's dangerous to summon a demon not to mention when you just plan to send it back." She offered with a shrug sipping her beer.

"You actually make summonings?" Dean asked her in disgusted disbelief.

"Trust me when I say I make no light of it. Every Demon I've summon has gone right back to hell without hurting anyone, but me." She replied with a slight grimace.

"That sounds stupid, you _are_ anyone." Dean said sharply.

"Dean." Sam said warningly to him.

"What?" Dean rounded on him. "I'm not supposed to say anything to the crazy girl who's going to get herself killed one day and unleash a demon on people?"

"Would never happen. I take assurances that if I died it will still go back to hell." She assured him. "I know what I'm doing I've been at it since I was a teen and I only do it when innocent lives are at stake." She said in an angry voice feeling slightly offended.

"Why don't you just use phosphorus if it works as good?" Dean asked her.

"Because in some instances Brimstone is the only choice." She replied in a tight voice. A knock came to the door and she sighed thankful for the distraction. She smiled at the pizza boy taking the food and handing him enough for a ten-dollar tip before closing the door.

"How much do we owe you?" Dean asked her.

"I got it covered." She replied putting the food on the counter and grabbing herself a slice of her pizza.

"Sorry if I got kinda harsh back their but our Dad taught us that summoning equals stupid." Dean explained to her.

"Well what can I say he's right but my family's been at it for generations and we know what we are doing." She offered.

"So your father trained you up for this?" Sam asked sitting in the desk chair with some pizza and a beer.

"First as a kid it was my grandmother but after she died it was my father yeah. Grams died when I was seven of heart failure. Danni and me were always close but after that we were inseparable. It was just Danni I and Dad then and we were on the move a lot, training." She explained.

"Pretty much the same for Sammy and me." Dean told her. "After something killed our mother Dad took us on the road training us and hunting down every evil thing he could find."

"You guys, been on the road since?" She asked grabbing another beer and more pizza getting Dean another while she was up.

"Nah Sammy here did the collage thing too." Dean told her as she handed him a beer.

"It's Sam Dean, not Sammy. How many times do I have to tell you?" Sam complained rolling his eyes as Dean grinned at him.

"So what happened Sam Dean kidnap you and force you back into life on the road and hunt?" She asked remembering how they referred to it as 'hunting'.

"Not exactly." Sam said and she looked over at him when she caught the sadness in his eyes.

"You lost someone." She said in a sad voice starting as the image of fire shooting out at her filled her mind. "Fire." She said shaking her head and looking over at Sam trying to blink the vision from her sight. His eyes were wide in surprise as he looked at her and she shrugged.

"Psychic, remember?" She asked him. "Mix in enough alcohol and I've got a little less control over it unfortunately. I get empathic to the point where I pick up images. Just one of my many _gifts_." She explained with a shrug.

"What did you see?" Dean asked her.

"Fire. Coming at me. I think I was lying down on something…like a bed." She told them and they looked at each other in surprise. "If you like, I could try holding your hand while you think about what happened and see if I can get it from you that way?" She told Sam.

"It's worth a try I guess." Sam said shrugging and moving to sit next to her on the bed putting his beer next to her food and beer on the nightstand.

After sighing and giving her an uncertain look he offered her his hand and slowly she took it. Sam closed his eyes and with one last glance at Dean who was watching with an indecisive look she followed suit. At first there was nothing but the darkness but she focused her mind on the feeling of Sam's warm hand in her own. She let her mind and inhibitions go opening herself up to Sam and allowing their energy's to mingle.

It was like watching it from split perspective's Sam's own and an outside perspective as if she was their watching everything as it happened. Dean and Sam's scuffle in the living room the hunt for their father and the fight about Sam returning Jess and to school. The nightmare he returned to as he lied down on the bed and felt the blood dripping only to look up in time to see the fire consume Jessica and the ceiling.

"No! Jessica!" She cried out as she came back to herself. She let go off Sam's hand shaking herself aware of their shocked eyes on her. "Oh that was stupid." She said rubbing her forehead as the sudden stabbing pain began in her third eye.

"What?" Sam asked from beside her.

"Shouldn't have done that after everything tonight. Serious migraine starting burned too much energy and mixed it with beer. Never good." She muttered getting upon and grabbing some pills from her purse. "Okay." She said after swallowing a couple of pills.

She looked over at the brothers sitting on the beds watching her with patients and a little concern on Dean's part. "I saw what happened to Jessica, and your little trip with Dean before hand. That's pretty harsh." She said with sympathy glancing at Sam who'd moved back to the desk chair. "I also picked up on the fact that whatever did it also killed your mother?" She said in question.

"Yeah you have any idea what it could be?" Dean asked her.

"Afraid not, but a lot of my family's knowledge has been lost. What hasn't is in the library I've inherited from my mother and grandmother but I have only read a small part of it, it's huge." She explained in a shrug. "I have a close friend who's scanning it into a database but last I checked he'd only gotten about a tenth of it scanned. I'll call him tomorrow and give him specific's to search threw what he does have." She offered.

"Sounds good." Sam said smiling.

"So what about you?" Dean asked her.

"What about me?" She asked sitting back down on her bed.

"You said you went to collage how'd that come about?" Dean asked her.

"Ah well, Danni's idea actually. He knew I was a brain and liked school so when I was sixteen and got my high school diploma early he brought it up. Dad and I were always butting heads and as usual did on this case. He refused to even talk about me with Danni after I got emancipated at seventeen and left Dad forbid him from having anything to do with me again. Of course he didn't listen, only went behind the old mans back.

'I was on my second year when Danni died. I found out because my father sent me a letter informing me I wasn't welcome at the funeral. I had to wait for him to leave to pay my respects to my brother. We never talked again." She told them with a shrug. "I tried to go on with a normal life. Continued in school with plans to get more degree's and met a guy. Kieran and I moved in together and were dating two years when we got engaged. Everything seemed to be going perfectly when it happened." She said looking up at them and sighing. "I'd already killed a lot of things in my past and made a lot of enemy's. Never told Kieran about any of it, he had no idea what happened. All he knew in the end, was that _I_ was killing him." She explained in a shaky voice.

"What?" Dean said in shock.

"I was possessed by a powerful spirit who wanted to ruin me, and knew the perfect way to do it. It possessed me and killed my fiancé brutally and slowly. Then it left me and never came back." She said chuckling morbidly. "I was arrested and charged with murder. I wouldn't say anything to anyone so my lawyer an old family friend he had my lawyers go with an insanity defense. It worked and I was sent to a privet place and eventually 'cured' and released at the age of twenty-two that was two years ago, I've been on the road since." She said shrugging.

"That's horrible." Sam said in a sympathetic voice.

"I knew better. Miller girls never manage to escape the family business. People around them start dying until they accept their fate." She said in a hollow voice.

"You can't really blame your self." Dean said in surprise and she looked over at him solemnly.

"Dean, I killed him. With these hands." She said holding them up. "I never told him the truth. I knew the risks he took but he didn't. I let down defenses for the sake of anonymity when I moved in with him. It was my fault. My mother and grandmother came to my dreams to try and warn me long before it happened. I saw numerous death omens that predicted the death of someone close to me." She explained to them. Of course she'd only ignored them in the hopes they were foretelling her fathers death.

"Did you fight the Spirit?" Dean asked her. "When it possessed you did you just lay down and wait for it to leave?"

"I fought it with everything I had." She muttered. "Not nearly enough apparently."

"Then I'm sure you did everything Kieran would have expected of you." Sam assured her.

"But not nearly as much as I would have expected of myself." She replied.

"Ever think you expect too much of yourself?" Dean asked her.

"Way I was raised." She replied with a shrug. "Alright, well, don't know about you guy's but I'm thrashed. I'm gonna try and get some sleep before this migraine gets worse." She explained rubbing her forehead that hadn't stopped throbbing despite the pills she'd taken.

"Alright goodnight Eris." Sam said standing and grabbing his coat from the back of the desk chair. "Thanks for dinner."

"No problem it was my pleasure." She assured him as he walked out the door after glancing at Dean.

"You gonna be alright?" Dean asked her.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question? I mean I am the one who did the rescuing tonight…aren't I?" She asked him with a cocky smile intent to reassure him.

"That's not what I mean." Dean said look at her with serious concern.

"Dean I was born a fighter, and for once I'm not fighting with that part of myself to no end. The rest will just take time that's all." She offered with a shrug.

"If you ever need a should to cry on." Dean offered her with a playful smile. She smirked at him laughing and shaking her head.

"Thanks for the offer Dean but I don't usually like to cry in front of people. I was raised to believe it was a sign of weakness." She told him. Dean looked down at her in concern and she smiled softly before stepping forward and giving him a warm tight hug he returned enthusiastically. "Don't worry Dean if there is one thing I'm good at its taking care of myself. I'm a survivor." She said kissing him on the check before pulling away.

Dean looked at her with a cocky smile eyes twinkling as he cocked his head down at her making her laugh. "Alright come on get outta here so I can get some sleep." She said rubbing her forehead as she walked to the door and opened it for him. He swaggered to the door pulling her into another hug before raising his hands to her shoulders to dig his fingers in and knead them. She sighed gratefully and rested her head on his sternum while he worked her tight muscles with skilled fingers. Before he stepped back bringing her chin up so he could kiss her forehead and step out the open door to the step outside.

"Sleep well." He said looking at her with a cocky smirk.

"Tease." She sniped playfully before closing and locking her door hearing him laugh as he went next door.

Sighing deeply she rolled her slightly loosened tense shoulders before moving for a couple more pills and the shower. She turned the water up as high as she could stand it and tried to relax her shoulders some more. After drying off and brushing her hair she changed for sleep braiding her hair for the night before sliding into bed finally. Her head was still filled with pain but with patients she managed to slowly slip off to sleep.

Chapter Two, A Partnership

_When she was younger and still training on the road with her father and brother she had acted as a trans-medium often. She considered it one of her lest favorite things in the world but new how important and key it could be in some cases to have a trans-medium on hand. Sometimes a small part of her thought her father was just abusing the privilege instead of trying to train her to use it and control it. She didn't like the way it felt to not have control, to feel something else inside of you, to feel how evil it was or how badly what was once innocent had died._

_So she knew the sensation of another's presence filling her own when she'd felt it that night, trying to push her aside and take control. The sudden sense of panic she couldn't shake didn't help her in her struggle. Pain permeated her body making her long to scream but for the fact Kieran was in the other room on the computer and would hear her. She couldn't let him come in the bedroom she had to try and protect him._

_It kept pushing at her though and she realized she wasn't as strong as she used to be. It had been too long since she'd had to fight another trying to take over her body and she'd gotten rusty. The fact that her father had been right about something so small taking her down another level and with a pain filled inner scream she felt her mind crack and felt herself shoved aside. Someone else was in her drivers seat and all she could feel was pain like she'd been ripped out of her own skin, which in some senses she had._

_She saw herself rising from bed and approaching her closet to pull her locked trunk out of the bottom. She twisted inside herself trying to fight her way back to the surface only to be unable to move. She cried and yelled inside her own head in frustration trying to push aside her panic. She saw herself pulling out her bowie knife from the trunk putting it on the bed with handcuffs._

_She watched as she slid on a pair of jeans over her underwear and tucked her knife into the back of them shoving the cuffs into her back pocket. She tried to fight and twist free again as she made for the door only resulting in making her self stumble slightly. Kieran had his back to her as he typed away at the computer on some schoolwork he didn't give any indication of knowing she was there._

_She watched helplessly as she walked up behind him and put her arms around him to cover his eyes making him jump._

_"Whoa, hey babe. Give me a heart attack huh? Thought you went to bed?" He asked sighing pleasantly as she ran her hands down his arms and pulled them off the arms of the chair bringing them behind his back to slip the cuffs on him. "What the? That's a little kinkier then we're used to, babe." He said in a flabbergasted voice. She could only watch in horror as the chair was turned around so he faced her and the knife was pulled blade glinting in the computer light. "Uh, babe that's a little too kinky for me okay? Let's loose the knife." He told her._

_"No, I don't think so." She heard herself saying._

_She brought the knife down in his thigh twisting it and yanking it free making him scream in agonized surprise._

_"What the fuck!" He cried kicking her away with his good leg. She felt the full force of the blow well aware that her possessor did not and that it only made her weaker. He was trying to hop away to the door but she was on him fast toppling him to the ground she sliced the hamstring on his other leg before straddling his back. She could hear him whimpering in pain trying to throw her as she started to slice off the shirt he was wearing and carving mindlessly into his skin. "Why?" He begged in a small voice._

_"Got board." She said in a mindless voice before stabbing him in the back and making him scream. She fought inside her prison finding herself wishing for the first time they had neighbors that might call the cops. He managed to knock her halfway off rolling onto his back but she just as quickly was back on him digging the blade into his gut. "Not done yet babe." She said in a mocking voice. "We've got hours to kill." She told him in a mockingly sweet voice._

_"I thought you loved me Eris?" He pleaded looking at her with heartbroken green eyes._

_"I love the way you bleed babe, and the sound of your voice as you scream." She said bringing the knife up again to stab him and her panic turned to terror._

She screamed out in denial ripping her self from sleep and running to the toilet to be sick. Her hands were shaking and she looked pale when she rinsed her mouth out at the sink. She stared at her reflection disgustedly before she punched the mirror and broke it sighing when she heard the knocking on her door. Wrapping her bloody hand she opened the door, somehow unsurprised to see Dean in jeans and his leather without his shirt obviously having shoved his feet in the shoes without tying them in a hurry to check on poor little _her_ she thought to herself mockingly.

"Come on in." She offered before moving to the kitchen sink to rinse off her hand trying to shake off the dark mood.

"What happened?" Dean asked when he came up behind her after closing the door.

"Broke the mirror. Grab the first aid off the top shelf in the bathroom cabinet for me will you?" She said pulling out a piece of mirror. Dean brought it a few moments later after taking off his coat opening the alcohol for her and some gauze. After she got out all the glass she disinfected it and turned off the water putting pressure on the cuts while Dean opened up some band-aids for her and bandaged it.

"Make you feel any better?" He asked her after he finished.

"Not really." She said wrapping her arms around herself and noticing her hands were still shaking. "Pathetic really." She said more to her self, sighing.

"No, not pathetic. Normal." Dean told her sincerely.

"Never was one for normal Dean. And somehow I doubt many people would say what I am dealing with is normal." She said shaking her head. She sucked in a shuddering breath and sat down on her bed resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. "Fuck." She cursed trying to fight off her sobs.

"Hey." Dean said kneeling down in front of her. "It's alright to just let it out. It takes a lot of strength to let yourself feel, Eris." Dean told her softly. She fell into his chest burying her face as the sobs took her and Dean held her to him rocking them.

So somehow or other she could never recount she found herself cuddling a boxer clad Dean in bed when she woke the next morning thankfully in her nightgown still. Hell she liked the guy but she hardly knew him and she wouldn't want to think that last night somehow led to sex that she couldn't even recall. She looked at the door in surprise when a knock came to it Dean pulling her closer in his arms as it started to rouse him.

"Sammy." He murmured.

"I should hope not." She said in an affronted voice laughing as she looked over at him opening one eye at her.

"I meant at the door, vixen." He growled before letting her go and stretching. Shaking her head she grabbed her robe and threw open the door to a concerned Sam.

"Have you seen…" Sam said only to have her cut him off.

"Dean?" She said throwing her door open and motioning him inside.

"Oh Dean, there you are. What are? Oh…uh…should I come back later?" Sam asked coming instantly to the _wrong_ conclusion.

"No, no, nothing like that Sam. I had a nightmare and woke up Dean. He came over and…comforted me, but nothing _happened_." She assured him.

"You say that like something _happening_ would be a bad thing." Dean said in an affronted voice.

"Dean, you don't need me to give your oversized ego a boost but yes I noticed your attractive. That doesn't mean I'm looking to become another conquest or one nightstand for you or something. When I'm with someone like that it's because I have deep feelings for them and intend to do something more then that about it." She told him seriously grabbing some cloths from the closet before going into the bathroom. "Be out in a bit." She said.

After going to the bathroom she bushed her teeth and washed her face before dressing and brushing out her braid her dried hair now crimped. She stepped out to find Sam who informed her Dean went to change for breakfast. So she grabbed her shoes putting them on and throwing her bed together. She and Sam waited outside after she grabbed her coat and purse turning on her stereo and playing some Lincoln Park only to find out that Sam was a fan.

"Do we know where we're eating?" Dean asked when he stepped out in a fresh pair of jeans and a black Metallica shirt.

"I figured I.H.O.P. since that's where we ate last time." She offered shrugging.

"Sounds good to me." Dean replied looking at Sam in question.

"Me too." Sam said. "Since we're going together why don't we take the same car?" Sam asked him.

"Leave my baby all alone?" Dean asked looking over at his car.

"I'll let you drive." She offered him sliding over to the passenger seat.

"Never say no to that." Dean said sliding in.

"I'm sure you'll treat her as good as your own." She told him in warning pulling her seat forward so Sam could climb in the back. After adjusting the mirrors and seat Dean pulled out of the lot and moved to touch the stereo but she slapped his hand down.

"Don't touch that you don't even know how to use it." She complained.

"Yes I do." Dean replied defensively.

"Please I saw the system you have. What were you going to do and what button were you going to push?" She asked him.

"I wanted to change it to some half descent music." Dean grumbled. "And I was going to push…_that _button." He said pushing it stubbornly. She grumbled when it turned off the power smacking his hand away playfully and turning it back on. She took out the L.P. CD and put in some Led Zeppelin knowing he'd like that better.

"Now, no more fondling my car. She doesn't like it." She said making Dean laugh.

"Frightening I swear." Sam muttered from the back. "How much you have in common."

"Honey I spent a few years in a mental hospital. You don't know the meaning of frightening." She told him sarcastically.

"I can't even imagine." Sam said from the back.

"Don't want to." Dean said from beside her.

"Don't." She offered them shaking her head. "It goes no places but bad." She said quietly in reply.

"So do you know where you're going now?" Dean asked her changing the subject.

"Not yet, what about you two?" She asked in reply.

"Well the trail for dad has gone cold." Sam said sadly.

"Are we going to do this again?" Dean said in an angry voice glancing at Sam in the rearview mirror.

"No. _Dude_, I was just stating a fact. That we got no clues for Dad so we're going where the next case leads us." Sam said defensively.

"Sorry." Dean said gruffly. "I just…"

"I know." Sam replied. A sudden silence filled the air like they'd just released she was there for that little moment.

"So you guy's have a case then?" She asked pretending like it hadn't happened.

"Not yet, we'll dig something up if nothing finds us." Dean told her.

"I hear you." She replied.

They pulled into the parking lot of I.H.O.P. a few minutes later being seated and severed quickly. She had just finished eating when her cell phone rang and she read the caller I.D. stating Sandra Baker from Nevada was calling her.

"Eris Sydelle Cross." She answered per usual.

"Miss Cross, I'm so glad this number was still good." Said a very relieved sounding female voice.

"Call me Eris please." She told her warmly.

"My name is Sandra Baker and I got your number off a woman I met on the Internet. Her name is Sherri, Sherri uh…" She said her voice trailing off and she heard papers shuffling.

"Sherri Atwater?" She asked her in question smiling.

"Yeah, that's it yes!" The woman assured her.

"Yes I helped her with a haunting, is that what this is about? Another Haunting?" She asked her.

"Yes, That's right Eris. My house it's old and we just bought it but it's haunted." She said voice sounding strained.

"Don't worry that's right up my alley Sandra, handle Haunting's all the time. You could call them my specialty." She assured her.

"Oh, could you hold on a moment please?" Sandra asked.

"Of course I'll hold no prob." She assured her looking over at the brothers listening in interest. "Looks like I've got another case." She told them.

"Want some company?" Dean asked.

"If you'd like caller I.D. said it's in Nevada." She told him. Something on the phone caught her ear and she cocked her head listening closer before passing it to Dean. "Tell me what you hear?" She asked him. He took the phone from her and listened in curiosity before handing it to Sam.

"Sounds like E.V.P. to me." Dean said.

"Me too." Sam said handing it back and she raised it to her ear with a digital tape recorder getting about two minutes of tape before Sandra returned to the line.

"Thanks so much for holding that was the door."

"Not a problem. Once you have given me the directions, a couple of associates of mine and I will head on down to you." She assured her.

"Oh thank you so much Miss Cross, I mean Eris. When you get here we can work out payment."

"I don't normally take…" She started only to have Sandra cut her off.

"Honey you get these things outta my house and your not walking out of here empty handed." She insisted.

"Of course, if you'd like." She assured her. She took the directions before reassuring the woman and hanging up. "Well what do you know, she insists we'll be getting paid if we get the job done." She told them with a grin grabbing a sausage to nibble on it.

"A paying job is a good gob." Dean said with a smile.

"Providing everyone lives." She half joked.

"Long drive?" Sam asked her.

"Yeah, and if you guy's want details about it I'll give you her number. I prefer not to know anything when I walk in and work off of what I feel and read inside the house." She told them.

"Sounds good to me." Dean replied looking at the directions she'd written down with Sandra's name and number.

"Now to inform you about my trans-medium status." She said leaning back in her seat.

"Really?" Sam asked in surprise.

"Yeah, talent that runs in the family actually." She replied.

"Just tell us what to do and not to do." Dean reassured her and she smiled at him.

"While I'm transing and trying to get a connection I need space first and foremost. Once I'm connected in some cases I need to be restrained depending on the strength of the spirit and the connection. It hasn't happened to me in a long time I've been working on my control a lot." She explained.

"Alright. Well folks looks like we've got ourselves a job." Dean said with a smirk.

End…of the Beginning.


End file.
